At a time when NBA teams are hawkishly monitoring payrolls and squeezing contracts, particularly those to which pricey veterans might have grown accustomed, Marbury has signed a three-year deal that might keep him playing to age 39, 20 years beyond the night he was drafted as the NBA’s overall No. 4 pick.

The deal, of course, is with the Beijing Ducks of the Chinese Basketball Association. That’s where the former Knicks, Suns, Nets, Celtics and Timberwolves point guard has thrived since January 2010, by which point the headstrong, selfish and occasionally wacky Coney Island kid had run out of NBA options.

From The Association looking out, Marbury has been in exile, still talented but not worth the headaches or the mismatch between his expectations and NBA reality. That he would head around…